France's lower house of parliament has voted unanimously to repeal the 1685 Code Noir, the colonial-era decree that once defined enslaved Africans as property.
The National Assembly decision,254-0, formally removes a law that had long lost legal force but remained symbolically present in French statute books.
The Code Noir, signed under King Louis XIV, regulated slavery across France's colonies, authorising brutal punishments, forced labour, and the total legal dehumanisation of enslaved people. Although slavery was abolished in 1848, the text itself was never formally erased.
For many lawmakers, the vote was not just administrative, it was emotional. In a chamber marked by rare unanimity, history seemed to weigh heavily on the present.
The Code Noir was a 1685 royal decree that laid out how slavery was governed in France's colonies. Under Article 44, it classified enslaved Africans as 'movable property', regulated their lives and labour, and imposed extreme punishments for resistance or escape.
According to historical context explained byAP Newsthe law shaped colonial systems across the French Empire and entrenched slavery as an institution backed by state authority.
During the debate, Steevy Gustave, a lawmaker from Martinique and descendant of enslaved people, delivered a speech that moved colleagues to silence.
'We are not descendants of slaves', he said, breaking down in tears. 'We are descendants of human beings born free, then reduced to the worst – reduced to slavery.'
His words captured the emotional undertone of the session as legislators confronted the fact that a law defining human beings as property had remained officially unrepealed for nearly two centuries after abolition.
French President Emmanuel Macron had recently acknowledged the symbolic weight of the Code Noir, saying its continued presence reflected 'a form of offence through decades of institutional silence.
Source: International Business Times UK
